Pondering the Voting Rights Act

"It is the single most
important piece of civil rights legislation, other than the
constitutional amendments, in the history of the country." So says
Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson, referring to the Voting Rights Act of
1965. First proposed by Lyndon Johnson, the act was passed
overwhelmingly by Congress after a voting rights drive in Selma, Ala.,
led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. had ended in violent clashes
between blacks and white police. The landmark law, which was renewed in
1970 and 1975, abolished literacy tests, forbade any other barriers to
the...